Record #:

8599

Author(s):

Reimer, Cynthia

Abstract:

In 1917, the Mountain Park Hotel in Hot Springs, North Carolina, was leased to the U.S. government to be used as a prison. On June 6, 1917, just sixty days after the United States declared war on Germany, 350 German officers and 50 seamen were brought to the hotel. Soon after, these numbers grew to 517 officers and 2,300 seamen. After a prisoner escaped, towers were built to protect the prison. These towers were manned by U.S. Army guards. The government provided nutritional meals, including meat, twice a day. The prisoners bought fruit and vegetables from Hot Springs's growers. Exercise, including tennis, bowling, and swimming, was required for the prisoners. Once called “the prison from which no one wanted to escape,” the Hot Springs prison hosted regular concerts on Thursday and Saturday nights. An epidemic broke out in the prison in 1918 and prisoners who survived were moved to Fort Oglethorpe in South Carolina. The Mountain Park Hotel then operated as a hospital for American soldiers.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 50 Issue 8, Jan 1983, p18-19, 55, por

Subject(s):

Prisoners of war--American; North Carolina--History--World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners of war--Germany; North Carolina--History--World War, 1914-1918--Concentration camps--Hot Springs

Record #:

14860

Author(s):

Hendricks, W. C.

Abstract:

German merchant marine sailors were held prisoner in the only North Carolina POW camp during World War I. The camp was established at Hot Springs located 40 miles north of Asheville and housed prisoners taken while in various American harbors. Initially housed in tents, the prisoners built more stable dwellings after being supplied with tools and lumber. Eighteen prisoners died after an outbreak of typhoid and were buried in Asheville's Riverside cemetery where a monument, erected by the American Legion in 1932, now stands to honor those at the camp who passed.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 11 Issue 15, Sept 1943, p21

Subject(s):

North Carolina--History--World War, 1914-1918--Concentration camps--Hot Springs

Record #:

23730

Author(s):

Ellison, Quintin

Abstract:

Hot Springs served as a German internment camp during World War I. The merchant marines were captured from German and Austrian commercial ships during the war and forced to set up camp in the small town from 1917 to 1918.

Source:

WNC Magazine (NoCar F261 .W64), Vol. 2 Issue 2, March/April 2008, p56-59, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

North Carolina--History--World War, 1914-1918--Concentration camps--Hot Springs

Record #:

34643

Author(s):

Vernon, Zachary

Abstract:

This two-part interview sheds light on a little-known German internment camp in the western landscape of North Carolina. Both authors interviews, Ron Rash and Terry Roberts, released works of fiction regarding the camp in 2012. Roberts focuses on the camp located in the Mountain Park Hotel, and its manager and internees, while Rash develops a love story between an escaped internee and a local woman. Both novels address the tensions between the two groups, as well as how the Germans began to integrate into society and form relationships.

Source:

North Carolina Literary Review (NoCar PS 266 N8 N66x), Vol. 23 Issue 1, 2014, p30-47, il, por, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Hot Springs--History; Rash, Ron, 1953-; North Carolina--History--World War, 1914-1918; North Carolina--History--World War, 1914-1918--Concentration camps--Hot Springs